ku # 471

West Branch Au Sable River • click to embiggenAnother picture from last evening's target-rich environmant.

A tip o' the hat to Paul Butzi and his photomusings blog for referencing my urban ku # 49 and suggesting that those who indulge in a 'new' post-postmoderism kind of photography be labeled New Landscapists. Sounds good, especially since a 'landscape' need not be of the traditional kind - it also be a 'landscape' of the mind, ala Aaron's Cinemascapes.

But, that said, the problem still remains (from an excerpt found on Tim Atherton's photo-muse) - "She was doing her best to suppress her irritation — defending contemporary art photography from the longstanding “style over substance” charge was an awful chore .... She had felt skeptical of much of what had happened on the photography scene in the past few years, particularly the return of expressions and attitudes from before the postmodernist breakthrough; her old nagging doubts about whether photography could be considered a critical (and not simply decorative) medium were coming back..."

IMO, the answer to the 'nagging doubts' reside in the notion of photography as a 'critical medium'. A return to pretty pictures just isn't going to cut it. Like it or not, photographers are going to have to think a lot more - think about 'concept' within the bounds of what-do-my-pictures-say-not-only-about-my-referent-but-also-about-picture-making-in-a-picture-saturated-culture. And, oh yeh, don't forget about the social/political and economic cultures.

No more, 'I-don't-know-why-I-do-it' statements. Time to figure it out, gang. Time to put much more time into the dreaded and oft-maligned artist statement. Time to think critically, as in dictionary definition #3 - ...involving skillful judgment as to truth, merit, etc.. - about why and what you're doing photography-wise.

That said, and on the basis of my 'it's-not-what/how a-picture-is-created-it's-who-created-it' premise, if you don't live a life based on critical thought, your photography will be ever assigned to the ubiquitous dust bin of the merely decorative.

Comments please.

Update on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 12:25PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Bret Kosmider wrote; "Clearly there's some pushback on the tough-love "get with it, people" insistance on thinking more critically of one's work..."

my response: I asked for it...I got it. And, much thanks to all who commented.

This is exactly the type of 'push back' I enjoy - it is great fodder for thoughtful discussion, but, note to all, while many of my opinions may be profferred with emphatic emphasis, they are opinions and, as such, they are meant to incite critical thought and resultant 'push back'.

It is through the exchange of thoughtful ideas and opinions, that I temper, modify, solidify or even abandon some of the tenants of my 'religion', photography-wise.

That said, I will be responding to many of the good points and questions raised on this topic. In fact, I'll post one later (within an hour or so) in order to leave you all with something to chew on while I and the limelight-grabbing boy are away in Pittsburgh for tomorrow's Penguin playoff game.

ku # 470

The Flats • click to embiggenThursday evening - sometimes living here is such a bitch but, then again, someone has to do it.

Nature, in its current season-challenged state (is it winter? ... is it spring?), put on a nice display of 'odd' light for a very brief moment or two. That odd kind of twilight light which is most often encountered post-storm with a pretty solid overcast. You know that somewhere above the clouds there's a nice sunset happening because a gentle, soft and warm light blankets the land.

To say that, for a few minutes, I was in a target-rich environment photography-wise is an tremendous understatement. Dinner and the long-suffering wife just had to wait.

PS - this picture is a 6 frame stitch.

urban ku # 50

A nostalgic look at yesterday • click to embiggenLast evening a soft warm light enveloped the area. It looked a lot like Spring. However, the 4-day forcast calls for up to 12 inches of snow.

IMO, there's a lesson to be gleaned from Aaron's Cinemascapes, especially for all those who are struggling with what to photograph/how to photograph and how to create pictures with meaning (or, at least with the power to grab the observer's attention with something more than the 'wow' factor).

It's simple really - as the sportswriter "Red' Smith opined about writing, "All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."

Aaron is simply doing the equivalent, photography-wise. Just as 'Red' Smith wasn't thinking about his typewriter, Aaron really isn't thinking about 'photography' or things photographic. His photo 'knowledge' runs about as deep as an Adirondack creek during a summer drought, and, he keeps his 'kit' very simple - camera, 1 lens, tripod and a pano head. To keep the Adirondack metaphor going, he's picturing with the photographic equivalent of backcountry minimalist survival gear.

That said, Aaron knows enough and has enough stuff to get the job done - very well, IMO.

What I find almost humorous is his lunch-hour-madness approach to making his pictures. He can pull this off simply because he has 'opened a vein' well before he goes forth, camera in hand, to turn his ideas into pictures. The vein which he is bleeding for his creative life-blood is not a photographic 'how-to' book, rather, it is his life and life-experience upon which he draws - that certain something which resides 'inside' that one needs to address in order to foster that other thing called 'vision' which leads one along the path of meaningful expression.

I bring this up because one of the excuses I most often hear from 'newbies' (and a surprising number of those who should know better) is the 'I-am-not-accomplished-enough-to-make-good-pictures' or 'my-equipment-isn't-good-enough' or 'I'm-not-very-good-with-PhotoShop' etc.-etc. whines. Bulls--t.

Give it up. Get over it. Stop looking to the 'experts' (myself excluded, of course) for advice on how to make good pictures. Forget about gear and technique. Because, if you start leaning how to see inside yourself, unless you are the shallowest of assholes, you'll find something worth-while just waiting to get out. Then, the stuff you need to know/have in order to express it will become like mere child's play.

Update on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 10:19AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Mary Dennis wrote. "So what do we have here? A new sub-genre of art that we can call Lunchbucket Photography? or How we learn to squeeze out every ounce of creativity we have in the moments that Modern Life allows us? I love it!"

Mary also wrote, "I feel a song coming on and I'm calling it "The Shallowest of Assholes." ;-) That will be with me all day..."

publisher's response: Mary, I think the song you're thinking of is Assholes on Parade by Timbuk 3. If you want something to stick with you all day, give it a listen.

The lyrics:

It's an asshole celebration
and they're all out on the street
see them on the sidewalk
hear them shuffling feet
there's 20,000 assholes
in an asshole promenade
step aside good people
there's the assholes on parade

We got assholes for freedom
the assholes for fun
the assholes for jesus
the assholes for guns
assholes for justice
assholes for crime
assholes for assholes
assholes for all time

We got assholes making money
they're making all the rules
taking all our jobs
filling up our schools

Assholes on the water
assholes in the sky
sign that says help wanted,
only assholes need apply

Oh teacher won't you tell me
have I really made the grade
am I head of my class
or am I just another
asshole on parade?

Assholes give the orders,
and assholes row the boat
assholes get elected
cause assholes get to vote
I once heard it said
that old assholes never die
they just lay in bed and multiply
assholes in the morning
assholes every night
assholes to the left and
assholes to the right

There's 20,000 assholes
in an asshole promenade
step aside good people
there's the assholes on parade

urban ku # 49 ~ a new place

A split second • click to embiggenI am emerging from a kind of modernist/postmodernist what-the-hell-is-what haze. After delving into the notions, it seems incredibly complex or equally simple depending on deep you want to go. I went deep enough to feel, at the extremes, like I was drowning in a sea of either simplistic sentimental dreck (modernism) or wretched intellectual/academic obfuscation (postmodernism).

That said, it seems that there is an emerging middle ground out there where the two cultural paradigms collide and out of the smashed particles a new stew is being brewed - perhaps a kind of post-postmodernism.

Photography-wise, a place where neither intellectual concept nor visual referent reign supreme. A place where the skeptical/questioning gaze of the camera does not descend fully into the 'end-of-the-line-everything-is-used-up' paradigm of postmodernism but rather, it creates a glimmer of it's-not-over-yet hope because, unlike radical postmodernism, the photographer actually believes that the referent matters.

A place where, even though the referent matters, the skeptical/questioning gaze of the camera never places it on an altar of idolatry that drips with sappy sentimentality. A place where the referent is addressed with a respect that preserves its authenticity but still allows the photography-observer to move well beyond the 'actuality of the real world'.

A place where the denoted and the connoted co-exist on equal footing. A place where photography can both illustrate and illuminate.

In short, a place where I want to be.

FYI - Cinemascapes

Resurrection of a Corporate Christ • click to embiggenIt looks like Aaron Hobson has found a groove. His recently launched portfolio site is devoted to his Cinemascapes which owe much to Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and, I suspect, his love of 'Indi' film-noire by Qienten Tarantino, et al.

In Resurection of a Corporate Christ, based on the assumption that he might be hungry after a few days in a tomb, Aaron has taken CC a McDonald's meal. FYI, Aaron, ala Cindy Sherman, appears in all his Cinemascapes.

Aaron has my attention. I hope he pursues this groove to full maturity.

ku # 469

Spring ice • click to embiggenAbout 2 weeks ago Spring was coming on big time, but, for the last 7 days, it has snowed everyday. Night time temps are in the mid to low teens. We wake up to complete snow cover which is then gone by sundown. I love Winter but I'm ready for Spring.

I recently came across this quote from Edward Steichen - "When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don't give a hoot in hell about that." - and, after some of the recent ruminations about moderism/postmodernism, meaning and other 'heavy' photography/Art topics, this quote has struck a resonant chord somewhere in my psyche.

Hmmm.

Update on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 at 10:54AM by gravitas et nugalis

A follow-up re: "Hmmm." - "Many people, photographers among them, view postmodernism with some hostility, tinged in most cases with considerablbe defensiveness. (see this from Paul Butzi as an excellent example) ...Postmodernist art acccepts the world as an endless hall of mirrors, as a place where all we are is images ... where all we know are images ... There is no place in the postmodern world for a belief in authenticity of experience, in the sanctitiy of the individual artist's vision, in genius or originality. What postmodern art finally tells us is that things have been used up, that we are at the end of the line, that we are all prisoners of what we see. Clearly these are disconcerting and radical ideas, and it takes no great imagination to see that photography, as a nearly indiscriminate producer of images, is in large part responsible for them." ~ Andy Grundberg, from his anthology, The Crisis of the Real

urban renewal # 3

Intellectual masturbatory drivel •click to embiggenExpect traffic delays at the border this weekend. Changes in normal patterns and heavy traffic associated with the Easter holiday will strain the faculties. Consternation and confusion will be the norm.

Please exercise caution, patience and understanding. Be sure to remove dirt and detritus from head and hair and avoid, at all costs, those attempting to take matters into their own hands.

ku # 468

Rain drops on branches • click to embiggenSince the switch to SquareSpace, I have been relatively pleased with the number of comments and visitor/guest participation here on The Landscapist. The number of page views and visitors also continues its steady rise as well aided by occasional spikes from recommendations/links such as the one from George Barr. My thanks to all who, in my eyes, are helping make The Landscapist a most enjoyable labor of love.

On the subject of comments, relative to Steve Durbin's comment - '... some photographers resist thinking about their work or trying to understand what they're doing..." - it's interesting to note that most topics and discussions on The Landscapist are aimed at inciting the act of thinking about the medium of photography, its import, its possibilities, its movements/history, its character and its qualities. I am quite happy and somewhat proud to note that the ever popular topic of gear hasn't raised its dreary head.

If comments were the only thing I wanted on The Landscapist, I'd be using words like Canon, Nikon, Leica, Ebony, CMOS, Foveon, resolution, pixel count, prime, zoom, calibration, noise, etc., etc., etc... but I don't. (Ok, I just did, but for illustration purposes only.) I, for one, really don't care that some people prefer x over y with the accompanying and endlessly repetitive reasons why.

That said, IMO, one of the primarily reasons so little Art is created by the great unwashed horde of photographers is simple. Photography is amongst the most mechanistic of the arts and that characteristic lends itself well to those who like to tinker with, own, and take pride in owning things. That's why gear makers flourish with a never ending parade of 'better' stuff.

But, good photography is not about what created it, it is about who created it. Simply put, the more fully developed a would-be artist is as a person relative to their understanding of self and to what they want to 'say' - that which is 'interior' - the better their chance of creating Art with full and rich meaning.

Sure, gear must be matched to the 'vision', but, that said, the simpler the better. Get what you need and forget about it. Then get on to using the most important items in your 'kit' - your brain and your soul.

Then, just show me the pictures, please.